Chatbots are well known for being a source of misinformation and false confidence, so ensuring federal authority infuses them doesn't cause any problems, right? 404 Media has found a GitHub repository showing that the Trump administration is working on its own chatbot.
According to 404 Media's findings, AI.gov appears to be the work of the U.S. Agency for General Services' Technology Transformation Services. He was identified by the New York Times as an ally of Elon Musk, appointed to the role of GSA's Tech Arm director. The audio from the leak meeting published by 404 Media allows you to hear Shedd pushing for government-wide AI integration.
AI.Gov is currently redirecting to the White House landing page, but the version of the site discovered by 404 Media reveals some details about the project, which includes its mission to “accelerate government innovation with AI.” The project appears to include a chatbot, but details are vague about what the bot can do. It also shows plans to launch APIs that integrate with Openai, Google and humanity. The code in the project suggests that it is also working on integration with Amazon Web Services' Bedrock and Meta's Llama.
The project currently displays quite bare bones, but it has a rather ambitious launch schedule. For every 404 media, the GitHub code indicates that the project is showing the planned launch date for July 4th. This is certainly one way to celebrate Independence Day. If everything goes for planning, then it's the catchphrase of Roland Emmerich's 1996 masterpiece. independence day “We've always believed we weren't alone. I hope we were there on July 4th.”
The AI embrace should not be too surprising if the project itself is relatively unclear at this point. Earlier this year, Elon Musk and Government Efficiency had unexpectedly fired federal employees at the General Services Bureau, and launched a chatbot where the remaining agent members were supposed to help with the task.
The project reportedly was in work before the Doge team ran through it to try and make up for all the labor that had been cut from the agency. The AI.Gov project appears to be a new mix of Shedd and the remaining teams in the GSA technical team. Considering that chatbots don't work, rushing through the door doesn't look like the safest and smartest idea in the world, but hey, they're experts, right?
